Lighting Artist / Technical Director - ILM San Francisco (Project Hire)

Job Posting Title:Lighting Artist / Technical Director - ILM San Francisco (Project Hire)Req ID:10152348Job Description:Position SummaryILM’s Interactive team advances the studio’s legacy of innovation by developing original immersive experiences across virtual reality, augmented reality and location-based platforms. Known for blending best-in-class visuals, sound and narrative, the team has delivered award-winning projects such as What If…? – An Immersive Story, Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series and the Oscar-winning CARNE y ARENA. Our work continues to push the boundaries of immersive entertainment and redefine how audiences engage with story. We are seeking a Lighting Artist who reflects the innovative spirit, creative talent, production excellence, and passion for great storytelling that defines ILM.The Lighting Artist is responsible for bringing the best out of our environments and to combine artistic talent and technical ability. You would be working closely with the Department Supervisor of Lighting and development/production teams on the design and implementation of lighting setups and lighting pipelines.What You’ll DoWork with Art Directors, Lighting Leads and Concept Artwork to design lighting setups for environments, characters and interactive game assets. Have a deep understanding of lightmap baking, dynamic lighting tools, image based specular lighting, indirect light probes, post-process volumes and real-time renderingWork with environment, character and VFX artists in the lighting design to achieve the desired targets for aesthetics and performance through material shader and geometry workPartner with level designers to animate via level blueprint or sequencer dynamic lighting or transitionsActively participate in improving workflows, optimizations and best practicesIdentify, triage, and fix bugs as required working with engineering and relevant departmentsTake final project to a high degree of polish and optimizationWhat We’re Looking For5+ years experience as a Lighting TD/Artist in AAA game development or animation/vfx/filmStrong aesthetic sense for lighting and color theoryStrong technical knowledge of current real time lighting tool sets including atmospheric effects, post processing, color grading and HDR IBL workflowsAble to effectively take direction and know what looks good and whyExperience with Unreal/Unity or equivalent game engine including dynamic and baked lighting workflows, physically-based rendering, and basic level blueprint scripting Shaders: in-depth knowledge of real-time shader implementations, limitations of shaders in VR, strong knowledge of PBR pipelines, and subsurface shadersMaterials: experienced in the development, authoring & organization of efficient materials via the UE4 material editorFluency in working in Windows, JIRA, Perforce or equivalent OS, workload and data management toolsExcellent communication, organization and problem-solving skills and self-motivatedBonus points for:Strong traditional art, photography or film studies backgroundProficient with profiling tools to examine & diagnosis performance issues related to lightingExperience with one or more of the following: Maya, Unity, Substance Designer / Painter, Zbrush or Mudbox, Houdini, Mari, 3D StudioMax, Photoshop, NukeInterest and capacity to work with proprietary toolsets* A portfolio / reel submission - including a detailed breakdown of your work in each section - is required with all applications.JoinILMThe hiring range for this position in San Francisco is $103,812 to $132,930 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.Job Posting Segment:ILM San FranciscoJob Posting Primary Business:ILM San FranciscoPrimary Job Posting Category:Lighting Entertainment - StudiosEmployment Type:Full timePrimary City, State, Region, Postal Code:San Francisco, CA, USAAlternate City, State, Region, Postal Code:Date Posted:2026-05-26SummaryLocation: San Francisco, CA, USAType: Full time